Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to continue Israel’s war against Hamas militants until victory, pressing ahead with its offensive in Gaza as the war hits the 100-day mark.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ October 7 terror attack in southern Israel, the deadliest day in the country’s history. More than 1,200 were killed in Israel and roughly 24,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have subsequently been killed in Israel’s counteroffensive – more than 1% of Gaza’s population.
With Hamas continuing to hold more than 100 hostages, as many as 120,000 people began a 24-hour rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, calling on the government to bring the hostages home. More than 100 hostages were released in November during a pause in the fighting but none since then.
Protesters, holding pictures of abductees, gathered in "Hostage Square" opposite Israel's defense ministry, where demonstrators have frequently gathered to urge Israel to do more to free the hostages.
Many Israeli companies and organizations observed the length of the war on Sunday, a workday in Israel, with a 100-minute strike in support of the hostages and their families.
Hamas says it will not negotiate over the remaining hostages until Israel ends its attacks in Gaza.
A defiant Netanyahu said at a news conference Saturday night that Israel will not be deterred by accusations that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.
"No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil, no one," he said, referring to Hamas fighting Israel in Gaza, Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who have been firing on Israel from Lebanon, and Houthi militias who have been launching drones and missiles to attack commercial vessels in the Red Sea as a show of support to Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister spoke after a two-day hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where South Africa accused Israel of genocide in a case before the court. Israel has rejected the accusation as libelous and hypocritical.
Israel says that ending the war now would mean victory for Hamas, an Islamic militant group that has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Britain, among others. It has ruled Gaza since 2007 and says it is bent on Israel's destruction.
An interim ICJ ruling is expected in a few weeks. Rulings are binding but difficult to enforce. Israel would ignore any order to halt fighting, Netanyahu made that clear.
Israel faces growing international pressure to end the war, which has led to widespread suffering in addition to the death toll. According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, about two-thirds of the dead are women and children. The ministry said the number of war wounded has surpassed 60,000 people.
According to the United Nations, Israel continues to bombard much of the Gaza Strip, and armed Palestinian groups continue to fire rockets into Israel. Fighting on the ground between the two also continues across much of Gaza.
Of Gaza’s 36 main hospitals, 15 are operating, albeit partially, according to OCHA, the United Nations' humanitarian affairs agency.
Fuel was expected to run out again over the weekend at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. Staff had received some emergency fuel from another hospital late Friday, while earlier they had been able to keep ventilators and incubators operating with solar batteries.
It was not clear whether the World Health Organization would be able to deliver a promised shipment of fuel, hospital officials said, as aid deliveries were being disrupted in much of Gaza because of telecommunications blackouts amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment.
Andrea De Domenico is the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He said Friday that Israel has been "very systematic in not allowing us to support hospitals, which is something that is reaching a level of inhumanity that, for me, is beyond comprehension."
From its official X social media account, telecommunications company Paltel said cellular, landline, and internet services across Gaza were cut because of "the ongoing aggression." The Hamas-controlled territory has seen repeated telecommunications blackouts in the past 100 days because of fighting and lack of fuel for electricity.
Since the start of Israel's ground operation in late October, 186 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 1,099 more have been injured in Gaza, according to the military. More than 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced due to Israel's air and ground offensive, and vast swaths of the territory have been leveled.
Amid severe shortages of food, clean water and fuel in Gaza, OCHA said in its daily report that Israel's severe constraints on humanitarian missions and outright denials had increased since the start of the year.
Only 21% of planned deliveries of food, medicine, water and other supplies have been successfully reaching northern Gaza.
"These denials paralyze the ability of humanitarian partners to respond meaningfully, consistently and at-scale to widespread humanitarian needs," OCHA said.
"Providing humanitarian assistance across Gaza is almost impossible," U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told a Security Council meeting Friday.
VOA Correspondent Margaret Besheer reported from the United Nations. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
